Iran fired several ballistic missile salvos at Israel on Friday, some of which carried cluster munition warheads, causing damage at several sites, as the Israel Defense Forces assessed between 4,000 and 5,000 Iranian troops have been killed in strikes since the start of the war.
Sirens sounded across Israel six times on Friday, sending millions running for shelter, with emergency services reporting damage at several locations in the center of the country.
There were no reports of injuries, and the IDF said it was investigating the circumstances that led to the impacts.
One impact, possibly by a cluster bomb sub-munition or other fragments, sparked a blaze on the roof of a building in Shoham. According to the Kan public broadcaster, dozens of people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the damage.
CCTV footage appeared to show an impact at an empty school in Rishon Lezion, and several cars were also damaged in the town.
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“I finished running and saw the missile fall. It was a great miracle that my wife and three children were in the reinforced room,” witness Tomer Nativ told the Ynet news site. “It was scary, everything caught fire on the street.”
תיעוד: פצצונת מהטיל האיראני המתפזר נופלת בבית ספר בראשון לציון, הערב@hadasgrinberg
(צילום: דוברות עיריית ראשון לציון) pic.twitter.com/XRLyF7M5ep
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 13, 2026
A cluster munition also hit a highway in the center of the country, causing a crater, while an impact in Holon sparked a fire in a building.
An additional missile hit an open area in central Israel — no sirens sounded as that projectile did not pose a threat to a populated area.
Damage was caused at at least three sites in central Israel in Iran’s cluster bomb missile attack this evening, according to first responders.
One of the impacts, possibly by a sub-munition or other fragments, sparked a blaze on the roof of a building in a central town.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 13, 2026
Cluster bomb warheads indiscriminately spread dozens of submunitions, each with several kilograms of explosives, over a radius of around 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The interception of such missiles has been effective but challenging, military officials have said, stressing that Israel’s air defenses are not hermetic.
Use of the munitions is banned under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, whose over 100 signatories include much of Europe and Africa as well as the UK, Australia and Canada, but not Israel, Iran or the US.
The Iranian ballistic missile fired at central Israel this evening carried a cluster bomb warhead, according to footage and initial military assessments.
There are no immediate reports of injuries in the attack, the sixth since midnight, which set off sirens across central… https://t.co/N2y3sGkNyE pic.twitter.com/F2oWILthYn
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 13, 2026
While the IDF said Friday that the number of missiles fired by Iran is declining by the day, the military assessed that attacks from Iran will continue as long as the war is active, and the rate of missile fire could even increase.
On the first day of the war, Iran launched some 90 missiles at Israel, before firing around 60 the following day. The rate then declined to around 20 missiles per day for around a week, before slowing further to several a day in recent days.
The IDF attributed the downward trend to strikes targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and squads of Iranian soldiers preparing to carry out the missile attacks.
Firefighters extinguish a fire at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Holon on March 13, 2026 (Flash90)
The Home Front Command is meanwhile mulling easing restrictions in some parts of the country that are under less of a threat of Iran’s ballistic missiles or Hezbollah’s rocket attacks from northern Israel, potentially allowing schools to reopen in some areas.
The decision would be subject to change, and will likely be announced on Saturday night when the current restrictions are set to expire.
The Education Ministry has said that schools will only open their gates 24 hours after any potential update, meaning that distance learning will continue nationwide on Sunday at least. Education Minister Yoav Kisch has already said that schools in the Tel Aviv area and north of the country will not open in the immediate future.
IDF: 4-5,000 Iranian troops killed since war began
Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force continued strikes across Iran on Friday as the IDF said it assessed that between 4,000 and 5,000 Iranian soldiers and commanders have been killed since the start of the war.
According to the data released by the IDF, among the thousands of Iranian troops that have been killed were many members of Iran’s internal security forces and Basij paramilitary force, which have been a focus of Israeli strikes.
The IDF said that it is preparing for several more weeks of operations in Iran, as it still has many more regime targets to hit, but that it has dropped over 10,000 bombs in Iran since the start of the war nearly two weeks ago.
An Israeli Air Force F-16I takes of for strikes in Iran, in an image published by the military on March 12, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
In all, over 7,600 separate strikes were conducted in Iran, including 2,000 against “headquarters and assets of the Iranian terror regime,” and 4,700 against Iran’s missile program, the IDF said.
The IAF has conducted 4,700 sorties and over 380 waves of strikes in Iran, according to the military.
The IDF also said it was examining the results of an overnight airstrike targeting senior Iranian intelligence officials.
“Last night, we struck a facility of the intelligence directorate of Khatam al-Anbiya, the emergency command,” said IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin in a video statement. “This is the body responsible for compiling information collected by intelligence agencies in Iran to present it to the regime’s security leadership.”
Defrin said the IDF hit the target “while several senior officials from the directorate were present.”
Black smoke rises following an airstrike in Tehran on March 13, 2026 (Elaheh ASIABI / FARS NEWS AGENCY / AFP)
The military also said it hit over 150 targets in western and central Iran on Friday, including ballistic missile storage sites.
The targets included “many sites used to store dozens of ballistic missiles,” along with missile launchers, drone storage sites, air defenses and weapon production facilities.
The IDF said that it carried out two waves of airstrikes overnight and into the morning in Tehran, which involved 90 fighter jets dropping 200 bombs on “numerous” Iranian regime security headquarters.
According to the military, the targets included a regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; a central headquarters of the Basij paramilitary force; and several headquarters of Iran’s internal security forces.
An Israeli Air Force F-35I prepares to take off for strikes in Iran, in an image published by the military on March 13, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Israeli Air Force also struck air defenses and other infrastructure at an Iranian air defense base in Iran’s capital, along with a site where “research and development of ballistic missiles was conducted,” the IDF added.
Earlier Friday, the military said it killed more members of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force who were manning checkpoints in Tehran.
Overnight, the Israeli Air Force struck a number of checkpoints that were set up by the Basij in Iran’s capital, killing several members of the paramilitary force, the military said.
A US official and an Israeli official told The Times of Israel last week that their countries’ ongoing airstrikes throughout Iran are targeting members of the regime’s forces that took part in the crackdown on anti-government protesters earlier this year, hoping to make it easier for demonstrators to return to the streets once the bombing subsides.